Muuto Katalog 2023

37
Turbina Studio is an artistic practice founded in
2018 by Mateo Fumero and Minerva Capdevila.
It is primarily concerned with the perception
of time, space and the cosmos: through its
exploration of materials and objects, it reflects
on life’s transcendental questions, reframing the
earthly experience of the unknown. Mateo and
Minerva live together with their young daughter,
Rita, in an old dry cleaners in Sants, Barcelona,
where home and work co-exist in perfectly
unstructured fluidity—almost all of the time.
Post Floor Lamp p. 138
Stacked Storage System p. 124
The home of artists Mateo Fumero and Minerva Capdevila,
co-founders of Turbina Studio, is defined by its fluidity.
The pair, partners in life and work, are based in a former
dry cleaner in Sants, Barcelona.
There, they live in a warm, raw, textural space with a
neutral palette, lots of lush green plants, and an ever-evolving
collection of objects. The open-plan living area they
share with their three-year-old daughter, Rita, is connected
to their workspace—a large, open room full of machinery,
objects and material archives—allowing the artists to step
seamlessly between home and work, life and art. From hour
to hour, day to day, their young family eludes regularity and
routine. Instead, their time is ruled by how they feel, what
they need in the moment, and how much longer one of their
newly created sculptures might need to dry in the studio,
before they can resume work on it. It’s an unconventional
way of life, and their space has evolved to accommodate it.
Except, that is, in the kitchen-cum-dining area, which is
configured around a simple, elegant table and accompanying
bench. Overhead, the skylight provides a direct connection
to the sun, the moon and the cosmos, which play such
an elemental role in the studio’s practice. (Turbina, whose
name refers to the idea “of generating things, of transforming
energy, or being in continuous motion”, is driven by the
duo’s interest in the universe, the planets and their orbits,
space and time.) But Mateo, Minerva and Rita spend much
of their time in this family space, cooking nourishing meals
for lunch and dinner. The living space is, if you like, the axis
on which the whole home turns.
Elsewhere, they display their treasures—remnants of past
projects, industrial processes, organic rocks or pleasing
found objects. They play, they reflect, they exist together.
They continue to grow the space itself—the outside terrace,
currently a space for messy work, is very much a work in
progress, and they are also planning a room for Rita, for the
future. If Turbina’s work explores the perception of time and
space through sculptural works, then it’s from this base that
their ideas originate. Fluidly, organically. At their own pace.
What drew you to the neighbourhood you live in?
Sants was a small industrial town adjacent to Barcelona before
the city grew. Many of the old factory buildings are still
here, although they have other uses now—they are no longer
industrial. You can feel the history of the neighbourhood in
many small workshops that served these large factories, and
the beautiful old houses that still remain, as well as the lively
working class spirit that is still present here.
Are there any spaces that inspired you, when you were
creating this one?
We lived for several years in self-managed and artistic
co-existence projects. Large spaces in industrial buildings
always with an integrated workshop. Unfortunately we do
not have that kind of a space now, but we have taken into
account the importance of the place itself, and how much
it conditions the type of life that is done in it. We are interested
in provisional and unspecific spaces, so as not to
create rigidity.